1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a system and method for the configuration, management, and/or monitoring of applications and devices of a computer network using inheritance. More specifically, a system and method for the configuration, management, and/or monitoring of computer applications and devices of a computer network using inheritance and accessing a control store such as stored at a central server are disclosed.
2. Description of Related Art
A computer network linking together numerous computers and various other devices becomes increasingly more difficult, time-consuming, and costly to manage as the number and complexity of computers or other devices on the network increases. In addition, the devices on the network may be located in distant geographic locations, thereby adding to the complexity and cost for management of the network.
Management of the devices in a computer network may involve the setting of various configuration parameters for each user, device, software, application, or other electronic resources installed on the devices or otherwise available via the devices. Such configuration may include configuring the way the resources may communicate with each other as well as how the resources may be shared, accessed, secured, limited, updated, scanned, backed up, etc.
For example, it may be desirable to manage virus protection on a computer network by managing each computer as a separate entity. Typically, a network administrator is responsible for the management of the computer network. The network administrator may install the virus protection software application on a first server or device and configure the software application. The configuration for the first device may be copied for installation on all other devices. With each change or upgrade, the process must be repeated for each device on the network. Such a process is very tedious and time-consuming, particularly when the devices are at different physical sites. In addition, the large number of computers and sites in a large network under management increases the complexity of the process may increase disproportionately.
Furthermore, within a network, it is often desirable or necessary to specially configure certain individual devices to account for differences among the different devices such as in hardware and/or usage. With mass copying of a master configuration file, particularly in a subsequent modification to the configuration and/or update of the application, any customizations on individual machines are lost and an administrator must correctly add the customizations back manually. As is evident, initial installation and subsequent updating of the application and/or modifications to the control settings can be tedious and costly. Any customizations are even more difficult with increased risks for error and complexity in management.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a system and method that more effectively and efficiently configure, manage, and/or monitor devices of a network.
A system and method using inheritance for the configuration, management, and/or monitoring of computer applications and devices of a computer network are disclosed. It should be appreciated that the present invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a process, an apparatus, a system, a device, a method, or a computer readable medium such as a computer readable storage medium or a computer network wherein program instructions are sent over optical or electronic communication lines. Several inventive embodiments of the present invention are described below.
The system for management of a network of devices and resources available to the devices via a computer network generally comprises a network directory defining a hierarchical tree structure containing nodes corresponding to the network of devices and defining control settings corresponding to and to be enforced upon the resources available to the devices, a directory server, and an end node. The directory server is in communication with the network directory to facilitate accessing data from and storing data to the network directory, the data relating to the nodes of the hierarchical tree structure corresponding to the devices and to the control settings corresponding to the resources. The end node corresponds to each device in the network of devices and resources corresponding to the device, the end node being in communication with the directory server and the resources corresponding to the device, the end node being adapted to enforce the control settings corresponding to the resources contained in the network directory. The control settings corresponding to the resources of each device are selectively inherited down the hierarchical tree structure of the network directory and wherein the control settings are determined at each end node.
The method for management of a network of devices and resources available to the devices via a computer network generally comprises, for each device of the network of devices, calculating control settings to be enforced by the device upon the resources corresponding to the device. The calculating is performed by the device by accessing data stored in a network directory defining a hierarchical tree structure containing nodes, each node corresponding to a device of the network of devices and defining control settings corresponding to and to be enforced upon the resources available to the corresponding device and wherein the control settings corresponding to the resources of each device are selectively inherited down the hierarchical tree structure of the network directory.
A computer program product for management of a network of devices and resources available to the devices via a computer network generally comprises, for each device of the network of devices, computer code that calculates control settings to be enforced by the device upon the resources corresponding to the device, wherein the calculating is performed by the device by accessing data stored in a network directory defining a hierarchical tree structure containing nodes, each node corresponding to a device of the network of devices and defining control settings corresponding to and to be enforced upon the resources available to the corresponding device and wherein the control settings corresponding to the resources of each device are selectively inherited down the hierarchical tree structure of the network directory, and a computer readable medium that stores said computer codes.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be presented in more detail in the following detailed description and the accompanying figures which illustrate by way of example the principles of the invention.